The utility was nominated by Diane Carbray, executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Fresno County, for its support of the Summer Jobs Program launched by PG&E in partnership with the Fresno clubs in 2012. The PG&E-funded program was expanded this past summer providing 105 paid jobs teens in Fresno County and adding Boys & Girls Clubs in Sacramento and Kern counties.

Holding the philanthropy award is Ezra Garrett, PG&E vice president of community relations and sustainability, with Boys & Girls Clubs CEO Diane Carbray.

“It was a no-brainer,” Carbray said of why she nominated PG&E. “To be able to have that incredible effect on so many lives… it was so worthy of recognition.”

The award was accepted at the luncheon by PG&E’s Ezra Garrett, vice president of community relations and chief sustainability officer. He said the utility is blessed to have the resources to give back to the community “to enrich the neighborhoods where our employees live and work.”

Garrett gave thanks to the many caring and dedicated philanthropists in the packed room at Pardini’s Catering and Banquet center. “What really makes it work, gets it done, is all of you here on the ground,” he said. Garrett also credited PG&E’s local corporate affairs staff in Fresno for helping the company’s community-based programs to succeed and asked them to stand and be acknowledged.

In addition to PG&E, nine other companies and individuals – ranging from a man who has helped raised more than $1 million for Saint Agnes Medical Center to a Fresno State professor who has raised money for causes benefitting deaf children and students — were honored. Click here for the full list of honorees.